Additional information about gender quotas

The first piece of legislation on reserved seats for women, which was enacted before the 1995 elections, set the number of reserved seats at 15 per cent and these seats were distributed among various parties based on the number of constituency seats they had won. Prior to the 2005 elections, the Constitution was amended to provide special seats for women in parliament to be not less than 30 per cent and the rule of allocation of these seats among parties was amended to be based on the percentage of votes won by these parties.

Similarly, the number of reserved seats for women in Zanzibar’s House of Representatives was raised to 30 per cent prior to the 2005 elections and the allocation of these seats among parties is calculated in proportion to the number of constituency seats won by these parties, but only parties with more than 10 per cent of the total seats in the House of Representatives qualify for women's seats (Constitution of Zanzibar 1984, Articles 64(c), 67).

Some political parties such as Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), Civic United Front (CUF), National Convention for Construction and Reform (NCCR-Mageuzi) and Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo,(CCDM-Chadema) have adopted voluntary quotas, including at least one woman candidate to stand for election in each constituency.